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Power Point:
Most of us don’t like to think about
Gethsemane and the hours that followed it. When I view videos of those moments
I find myself, looking down, not wanting to watch. The truth is that in the
garden of Gethsemane Jesus showed us what a difference it makes in choosing to
trust in God’s plans for us. Each of us will have “Gethsemane Moments” in our
lives, those times when the pressure is very great as God brings us face to
face with what we really believe.
It doesn’t always have to be a “life and death” moment. But
it is a defining moment. You will be faced with a choice that will define your
future.
The word,
“Gethsemane” means “olive press”. I would assume that somewhere in that garden
there was an olive press. Imagine Jesus kneeling to pray in the middle of
hundreds of olive trees with the scent of all that oil that has been pressed filling
His senses and knowing that He Himself was being pressed.
When you are in a Gethsemane Moment, the pressure can be very great. You are not sure you will survive, but in reality, that pressure is releasing heavenly
oil that will sustain you.
A Gethsemane
Moment can lead to joy and peace and faith to continue, or it can lead to fear
and agony. It is the place we will either embrace God or reject His promises.
It is a moment when it is just you and God. It is your
experience with Him. No one else can meet God for you. It is your time. Other people can pray for you and comfort you
and offer you encouragement, but the choice is always yours and yours alone.
Will you trust Him?
Will you believe that His plans are to give you a future and a hope?
Will you believe that He is good all the time? That He will
deliver you, and honor you, and bless you?
When Jesus was in
Gethsemane, He made the choice to trust His Father. The interesting thing is
that He could have chosen not to trust Him. He would still have had to face the
cross but He would not have been strengthened by the angels, or led by the
Spirit. And our lives would have been drastically different. Thank You Jesus!
Gethsemane Moments
always give us the choice to walk by faith or by fear. Think how
different Jesus’ life would have been in those next few hours if He had not chosen
to trust His Father’s plans. Somehow God reminded Him of the joy that was
set before Him; the joy of fulfilling His destiny and offering us a new future
with Him; the joy of knowing that as He made the decision to move forward we
would become children of the same Father that He loved so much. He decided to say “Yes” to the Father’s plans, and He received the
Father’s strengthening and the Father’s appointment. He came to the place in
great sorrow with great pressure and He left it firmly committed. A “Gethsemane Moment" should always
bring us joy because we have yielded to the Father’s plans in faith and we know that He is always on our side.
What is the joy set before you in your situation? Are you focusing on that future joy or your
present problem? Are you in a Gethsemane Moment? Then this is the moment when
faith resolves your fears and strengthens your heart and moves your spirit out
of the problem and into the joy that your obedience and your faith will bring. This
is the moment when you will either be enlarged or diminished.
Which will you choose? Will you trust Him?
Power Thought:
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